PCCP is pleased to announce that the winners of the 2014 awards for achievements in physical chemistry, received their prizes on 5th May 2015 at the University of Birmingham. Professor Helen Fielding of UCL presented these awards on behalf of the Faraday Division.The winners of the 2015 awards have now also been announced.

When you cook a lobster you will see a striking colour transformation from dark blue to orange-pink and until now, the cause for this has been subject to debate. Although the presence of astaxanthin, a carotenoid, is known to be responsible for the change, a recent PCCP article has shed light on exactly how.

In an international collaboration, Dr. John Halliwell at the University of Manchester and his group, have found that astaxanthin is present as a negatively charged enolate ion in the uncooked blue lobster. On heating, the enolate bonds break down and release orange-pink astaxanthin causing the colour change. This discovery has been made as a result of the combined interdisciplinary expertise in physical organic, biological and theoretical chemistry as well as spectroscopy.

Paul von Ragué Schleyer, a leading figure in physical organic chemistry, died on November 21st at his home in Georgia, USA. Schleyer pioneered the use of computational chemistry in characterizing new and widely used concepts and made vast contributions to a broad range of physical organic, organometallic, inorganic, and theoretical chemistry topics.

‘Paul Schleyer was one of the greatest chemists of the 20th century’, says Herbert Mayr, from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. ‘Paul’s impact on Organic Chemistry is only inadequately reflected by the impressive numbers of articles he had published. Of even greater importance was his influence on the thinking of a countless number of scientists who discussed with him their projects, collaborated with him, or just attended his lectures.’

Schleyer attended Princeton University gaining an A.B. degree in Chemistry in 1951, followed by Harvard University where he received a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry under Paul Bartlett in 1957. In 1976 Schleyer moved to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, in Germany and became a frequent speaker at international meetings, forming close relationships with many chemists with whom he would continue to maintain an active correspondence. Schleyer extended his career well past the mandatory retirement age in Germany and continued to contribute to the field as Graham Perdue Professor at the University of Georgia.

PCCP would like to send our deepest condolences to Paul Schleyer’s family and colleagues.

*The Impact Factor provides an indication of the average number of citations per paper. Produced annually, Impact Factors are calculated by dividing the number of citations in a year by the number of citeable articles published in the preceding two years. Data based on 2013 Journal Citation Reports®, (Thomson Reuters, 2014).

The group, led by Yi Tong, from the Beijing Institute of Technology, prepared detonation nanodiamonds by detonating a mixture of TNT and RDX in a closed metallic chamber. Detonation nanodiamonds are known to have excellent mechanical properties, including high thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity, whilst being chemically reactive but also environmentally benign. RDX was coated with different proportions of nanodiamonds to try to stabilise the explosive. This is important as you don’t want explosives to detonate if they are accidently heated when in storage.

By studying the thermodynamics of the resulting composites, the group found that nanodiamond coatings of between 1/7 and 1/5 of the mass of the RDX led to composites that were more stable than RDX alone, but that were more reactive than composites with thinner coatings. They also found that increasing the nanodiamond ratio to more than 1/3 of the mass of the RDX hindered the decomposition of the material.

The Gordon F. Kirkbright bursary award is a prestigious annual award that enables a promising student/non-tenured young scientist of any nation to attend a recognised scientific meeting or visit a place of learning.

The fund for this bursary was established in 1985 as a memorial to Professor Gordon Kirkbright in recognition of his contributions to analytical spectroscopy and to science in general. Although the fund is administered by the Association of British Spectroscopists (ABS) Trust, the award is not restricted to spectroscopists.

Applications are invited for the 2015 Gordon Kirkbright Bursary.

For further information contact John Chalmers by email: vibspecconsult@aol.com

The work of PCCP Advisory Board member Professor Elangannan Arunan on noncovalent bonding interactions has been highlighted in the latest Edition of Chemical & Engineering News. The so-called “carbon bonds” have been suggested as the force behind the hydrophobic effect.

The C&EN article also discusses the important work of Professor T. N. Guru Row’s group which very recently appeared in Chemical Communications on X-ray data which provides experimental evidence of the effect:

The Royal Society of Chemistry’s Prizes and Awards recognise achievements by individuals, teams and organisations in advancing the chemical sciences. There are over 80 Prizes and Awards available covering all areas of the chemical sciences.

You still have time to make your nomination before the deadline on 15th January2014

As well as the cash prize of up to £5,000 and an inscribed medal , all Prize and Award winners are given the opportunity to present their work to the wider community by giving lectures at several universities around the UK.